Pop & Rock News

Muddy Monk was revealed alongside Parisian artists Myth Syzer, Ichon and Bonnie Banane on 'Le Code'. From his native Switzerland, he imposes a fine, synthetic universe that plays a major role in the renewal of French-language song. The journey began in 2018 with 'Longue Ride', a cathartic first album that he describes as 'a kind of therapy' and that was unanimously acclaimed by the critics. In 2020, he returns with 'Ultra Tape', a mixtape which, with the benefit of hindsight, is the first step towards his second album. We discover a more raw universe. Darker too. A superb launching pad for his second album.

With Ultra Dramatic Kid, Muddy Monk delivers a radical new piece, a bubble of just over thirty minutes in which he manages to work his magic and make us dance on the edge of his emotions. As if everything could change in an instant towards happiness or chaos. An electric album and a sublime dive into his universe, which draws equally from Daft Punk, Rage Against The Machine and Travis Scott. A project that takes the form of a global experience, both auditory and visual, since almost all the tracks on the tracklisting have been put into images by Felix de Givry, the whole forming a short film to be discovered with the release of the project. In the end, Ultra Dramatic Kid is an uncompromising album in which it is a pleasure to get lost. An album that further establishes the Swiss artist as one of the artists capable of redefining the contours of French-speaking music for many years to come.

Finally available on vinyl - the band's most ambitious and masterful work to date, GGGOLDDD's new album pressed on beautiful color vinyl. The band's most ambitious and masterful work to date, This Shame Should Not Be Mine was conceived in the silence of 2020's pandemic lockdown, partly as a way for GGGOLDDD lead singer Milena Eva to confront parts of her past and partly in response to the Roadburn Festival's invitation to propose a commissioned piece for its 2021 online edition.

Exploring the complexity of personal experience, emotions and our shared histories, Vade Mecum finds Jones painting his music in boundaryless colors, captivatingly vivid. Issued on black and limited-edition red vinyl, packaged in a gatefold jacket with image oriented across both sides in a classic 1970's Style. Package includes notes and tunings for each song and download card.

Finally available on vinyl - the band's most ambitious and masterful work to date, GGGOLDDD's new album pressed on beautiful color vinyl. The band's most ambitious and masterful work to date, This Shame Should Not Be Mine was conceived in the silence of 2020's pandemic lockdown, partly as a way for GGGOLDDD lead singer Milena Eva to confront parts of her past and partly in response to the Roadburn Festival's invitation to propose a commissioned piece for its 2021 online edition.

Die Band um die beiden Sänger*/Gitarrist*innen Allegra Weingarten und Etta Friedman bestreitet mit Album #3 auf dem neuen Label Lucky Number einen einzigartigen Weg im heutigen Alt-Rock. Umgezogen von L.A. nach Brooklyn und frisch von der Supporttour mit Wet Leg, perfektionieren Momma die Balance zwischen schweren Riffs, tiefen Emotionen, einer einladenden Soundproduktion und einem unbeschwert-schrägen Sinn für Humor. Inspiriert von Ikonen wie Nirvana, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt und Kim Deal (The Breeders), lässt das Duo gleichzeitig eigene Perspektiven und Erfahrungen einfließen. Die 12 magnetischen Songs auf 'Household Name', produziert von Aron Kobayashi Ritch und gemastert von Grammy-Preisträgerin Emily Lazar, zeigen eine ungehinderte Verletzlichkeit, untermalt mit seriösem Alt-Rock-Bombast.

'Momma mix sludgy ‘90s guitars with the intoxicating feeling of young love.' - The FADER
'Momma furnish a fresh take on era-defining alt-rock sounds with an ennuied yet free-spirited character.' - The Line Of Best Fit
'They’re well on the way to becoming the rockstars they dreamed of being.' - DIY

Two years after he strikingly entered the world stage with Iron, a luminous track with a truly iconic video - Woodkid released The Golden Age, his first ever album, crafted and shaped in the utmost secrecy during the year 2012. While some might have just let the media hype do its work, Woodkid also known as Yoann Lemoine, chose to reverse the rules of the game. Following the release of a second single Run Boy Run, which became a classic in a matter of weeks - with the accompanying video nominated at the prestigious
Grammy Award in 2013, Woodkid decided to bring out his first album. A record with incredible ambition for this young Frenchman who America was already crazy about, picking up the momentum for his rise. The Golden Age is an epic quest, a beautiful and surprising adventure. The foundations of the Woodkid staple are of course all on display : percussions, string and brass arrangements, piano, programming and - of course - this powerful and sensitive voice that delicately runs through the melodies with great magnitude. A few months after its release The Golden Age was certified Platinum and
Woodkid went on to collect the Prize for “Best Live New Act” at the French Music Awards on February 14th 2014. As a multi-talented artist, Woodkid thought out his project with all aspects in mind. Initially working as a video director for the greatest (Lana Del Rey,
Drake and Rihanna), he then directs his own videos and starts creating the visuals and stage-design for his own live performances.
Since then, this gifted all-rounder has continued to explore multiple paths. In 2014 he works alongside contemporary artist JR on an original piece commissioned by the New York City Ballet (JR creating and Woodkid producing the music), takes the artistic reins of Pharrell Williams’ live shows and co-writes an original soundtrack with Hans Zimmer.

In 2015, Nils Frahm performs the soundtrack that Woodkid wrote for a
documentary on Ellis Island, directed by JR with commentaries from Robert De Niro.

The same year, cinematographer Jonas Cuaron (creator of gravity) asks him to write the music for his feature film “Desierto” a gruelling thriller set in the Mexican-American desert. Woodkid comes up with a radical and organic piece halfway between sound-design and film score, released in April 2016. He is to this day one of the most sought-after artists, a visionary and altruistic creator whose modern and powerful body of work continues to shape itself with every new encounter.

Repress coming in June of this sold out LP from last year. LP, 45 RPM, Limited Edition. Style: Post Rock, Downtempo, Shoegaze. The last widely available Hood album was 2005’s critically acclaimed Outside Closer on Domino Records but the Leeds post-rockers actually released a later collection of songs entitled “The Hood Tapes”. This was presented at the time as a tour-only CD available at their final burst of shows and later part of their highly sought after Recollected box set. Until now the standalone album has been impossible to find even on CD and has never been issued on vinyl. In the sleeve notes to the Recollected set, the band describe the album as ‘something made in a hurry in order to have something to sell on the road’ but “The Hood Tapes” is a lot more than that. It contains all new music that seems to straddle their career from scratchy experimental New Zealand weirdo lo-fi to the stuttery and staccato r&b influenced pop they sprinkled over that last Outside Closer missive. “The Hood Tapes” could also be seen as a series of sketches of potential future musical avenues open to the band who eventually instead chose to remain silent and although key band members still operate under such names as Bracken, The Declining Winter and A New Line (Related), there has never been any further work issued under the Hood umbrella. “The Hood Tapes” therefore is an overlooked key component to their storied history and this essential release brings it in line with their more well-known work.

"Pillow Queens are a rock band based in Dublin, Ireland. Formed in2016, their Calm Girls EP caught the ear of Steve Lamacq who called the four piece “deceptively infectious, with sharp hooks and sharp nails”.

Their follow up EP’s lead single, Favourite, with its accompanying dog-filled video, received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC Introducing, Radio X, and Amazing Radio as well as across Irish national radio stations. Two UK tours followed, along with a brace of sellout hometown shows in Dublin. But even bigger stages beckoned, when they supported Pussy Riot, and opened for Idles and Future Islands at massive open air shows in Dublin in the summer of 2018."

This is the official soundtrack to a new audio-visual freesurfing experiment and movie called Translate. It is the latest collaboration with award-wining director Chris McClean and is touring as a live AV show.

An ode to the raging North Atlantic, the album unites ethereal soundscapes and rising orchestral movements with sublime electronic excursions and lo-fi moments to transport the listener on an immersive and unrestrained journey across the continent.

Collaborations with renowned surfer / musician Lee-Ann Curren, Robert Thomas and Charles Watson expand the album into new sonic territories from the previous soundtrack, Static.

Translate, the live AV performance, had its sell-out world premiere at the London Surf / Film Festival where it won the prestigious Viewer’s Choice Award. The album has been supported by Finisterre, Carve Magazine, Surf Girl and MagicSeaweed, the largest online surf platform.

The Deluxe Vinyl edition is a heavily limited lathe-cut run, with packaging hand-made in the state51 Atelier.

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Fresh from supporting MUNA, Japanese House and Gengahr on their respective national tours, Fake Laugh is back with the follow-up to his self titled debut album from 2017.

Recorded between London and Berlin, Fake Laugh’s second full length retains his ability to write unforgettable earworms but expands his lyrical and sonic horizons to make a set of humorous and somber tracks that come together as a cohesive whole.

The album was made with close friend Louis Milburn and initially there was no end goal in sight; the joy of writing songs was the only focus. Rather than his usual strict recording process, Fake Laugh opted for a more improvised approach. This tactic kept things fresh and surprising in the studio and the record began to take shape naturally: a happy accident.
The record, like his self-titled debut, is engaging, melodic and memorable. Here, however, there is an added sense of humour, both lyrically and compositionally. That said, there are also some of the most melancholic tracks Fake Laugh has ever made here. A case in point would be track Alarm Bells - a song split into two halves - where the first verse is about an intense fear for the safety of a loved one and the second is about mistakenly thinking that someone has written a song about you. Fake Laugh flits between irony and sincerity, leaving the listener with an uncertain range of emotions.

Like the tracks, the album’s title offers multiple interpretations. Fake Laugh reminds us that: ‘depending on who you speak to, the act of dining alone is either embarrassing and awkward or honourable and enjoyable.’ Dining Alone manages to capture some of this ambiguity by complementary shades of humour and sadness.

In making Dining Alone Fake Laugh has proven that he has the capacity to expand his songwriting and recording and is now looking ahead to the future where he says he will be releasing: ‘a variety of records over the next couple of years that all have very different sounds.’

This single is the debut collaboration between Mark Beazley’s Rothko and Second Hand Poet, aka Jamie Tipson.

These two songs tell of the need for metamorphosis, the need to escape the confines of our enforced surroundings and relationships, and of coming to terms with ourselves in doing so. Featuring just bass and voice, Rothko and Second Hand Poet have woven an intricate tapestry of the human condition in 2020.

Mark Beazley has been releasing music under the name Rothko since 1999, with collaborations along the way with Susumu Yokota, BLK w/BEAR and Caroline Ross, and now with Second Hand Poet.

First released in the UK in 2003, British singer-songwriter Carina Round followed the release of her critically acclaimed debut album “The First Blood Mystery” with her sophomore offering “The Disconnection”, solidifying herself as one of UK’s most enigmatic songstresses. Marking its official vinyl debut this special pressing combines the original album, including the UK singles “Into My Blood” and “Lacuna” on 180g black vinyl alongside an exclusive “Bonus Record” of rare live and previously unreleased recordings from the albums era on 180g silver vinyl, compiled by Carina especially for this release. In addition to her subsequent solo releases “Slow Motion Addict”, “Things You Should Know”, “Tigermending” and her most recent, the retrospective compilation “Deranged to Divine”, Carina has garnished further international recognition as a member of the LA and Jerome AZ based band - Puscifer, alongside fellow band mates including Maynard James Keenan, also of the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. This limited edition release is presented in a unique silver printed sleeve, incorporating the original UK cover by acclaimed art photographer Anoushka Fisz.

A much sought-after Kristin Hersh side project. Black Vinyl LP. Back on vinyl for this bracing, ever twitching opus made of seven fluid pieces that fold into one continuous mantra. An essential release from the Throwing Muses’ offshoot helmed by Kristin Hersh and Bernard Georges, with Chalk Farm’s Rob Ahlers on drums. “Menacing, stalking, spirals of lean, hungry riffs.” Drowned In Sound 9/10.

Rare EP from this much sought-after Kristin Hersh side project. Black Vinyl LP. Back on vinyl for this Kristin Hersh fronted project, a super rare 2016 EP of enchanting and exhilarating sounds that shift from dreamy and emotional melancholy to jagged and almost Neu!-like rhythms that evolve behind her pointed prose and astute one-liners. A rush to the head that’s caustic yet comforting.

While Bauhaus have been waiting to continue their reunion shows, founding member David J has been trawling through his archive of tapes and diaries from the early 80s in coll;aboration with sound sculptor Tim Newman to present two volumes of unique spoken word and songs, including a vocal contribution from Black Francis of The Pixies and guitar overdubs by Warren Defever of His Name Is Alive and Adrian Utley of Portishead. Sleeve notes by Andrew Brroksbank of the Bauhaus Archive

'PRE PLEASURE', das wunderschöne neue Album der Australierin Julia Jacklin, zeigt die Musikerin auf ihrem absoluten Höhepunkt und liefert zehn der wohl persönlichsten, intimsten und ergreifendensten Songs ihrer Karriere. Das Album ist eine eindrucksvolle Demonstration von Jacklins Begabung als Lyrikerin und ihrem unbestreitbaren Talent als eine der fähigsten Songwriterinnen des Jahrzehnts.

Mit ihrem Debüt beweisen die Dan Carey Schützlinge - wortgewandt, wütend und unter Strom - eine versierte Sozialkritik und musikalische Vielfalt.

Auf 'Tired Of Liberty' dokumentieren The Lounge Society auf einzigartige Weise die Reise vier junger Menschen zwischen einer zeitlos wirkenden Adoleszenz und einem kulturellen Aufbruch. Mit düsteren Gitarren, peitschenden Rhythmen, beißenden Sarkasmus und schreiender Ironie kritisieren sie geschickt den gesellschaftlichen Ist-Zustand und kämpfen für die Inversion einer Kultur der Unfreiheit und einfachen Lösungen. Wie schon bei der vorherigen EP 'Silk For The Starving' (2021), entstand das Album in den Studios von Speedy Wunderground zusammen mit Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Kae Tampest, Wet Leg) über einen Zeitraum von nur zwei Wochen - eine Momentaufnahme geprägt von düsterem Psychedelic Rock und nihilistischen Post-Punk mit Electronica- und Funk-Einflüssen. Damit knüpfen The Lounge Society problemslos an Mitstreitende wie Dry Cleaning, Yard Act und Squid an und sind ihnen beinahe einen Schritt voraus.

Mit ihrem Debüt beweisen die Dan Carey Schützlinge - wortgewandt, wütend und unter Strom - eine versierte Sozialkritik und musikalische Vielfalt.

Auf 'Tired Of Liberty' dokumentieren The Lounge Society auf einzigartige Weise die Reise vier junger Menschen zwischen einer zeitlos wirkenden Adoleszenz und einem kulturellen Aufbruch. Mit düsteren Gitarren, peitschenden Rhythmen, beißenden Sarkasmus und schreiender Ironie kritisieren sie geschickt den gesellschaftlichen Ist-Zustand und kämpfen für die Inversion einer Kultur der Unfreiheit und einfachen Lösungen. Wie schon bei der vorherigen EP 'Silk For The Starving' (2021), entstand das Album in den Studios von Speedy Wunderground zusammen mit Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Kae Tampest, Wet Leg) über einen Zeitraum von nur zwei Wochen - eine Momentaufnahme geprägt von düsterem Psychedelic Rock und nihilistischen Post-Punk mit Electronica- und Funk-Einflüssen. Damit knüpfen The Lounge Society problemslos an Mitstreitende wie Dry Cleaning, Yard Act und Squid an und sind ihnen beinahe einen Schritt voraus.

Without a brutal evaluation of their own becoming, TV Priest might have never made their second album. Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer's shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. "A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm's length," says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. "I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking. I had to take a step back and realize that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Now, I just want to be honest." Having made music together since their teenage years, the London four-piece piqued press attention in late 2019 with their first gig as a newly solidified group, a raucous outing in the warehouse district of Hackney Wick. Debut single "House of York" followed with a blistering critique of monarchist patriotism, and they were signed to Sub Pop for their debut album. When Uppers arrived in the height of a global pandemic, it reaped praise from critics and fans alike for its "dystopian doublespeak," but the band - Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, producer, bass and keys player Nic Bueth and drummer Ed Kelland - were at home like the rest of us, drinking cups of tea and marking time via government-sanctioned daily exercise. As such, the personal and professional landmark of its release felt "both colossal and minuscule" dampened by the inability to share it live. "It was a real gratification and really cathartic, but on the other hand, it was really strange, and not great for my mental health" admits Drinkwater. "I wasn't prepared, and I hadn't necessarily expected it to reach as many people as it did." As such, My Other People maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. Using "Saintless" (the closing song from Uppers) as something of a starting point, Drinkwater set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health. "Speaking very candidly, it was written at a time and a place where I was not, I would say, particularly well," he says. "There was a lot of things that had happened to myself and my family that were quite troubling moments.Despite that I do think the record has our most hopeful moments too; a lot of me trying to set myself reminders for living, just everyday sentiments to try and get myself out of the space I was in." "It was a bit of a moment for all of us where we realised that we can make something that, to us at least, feels truly beautiful," agrees Bueth. "Brutality and frustration are only a part of that puzzle, and despite a lot of us feeling quite disconnected at the time, overwhelmingly beautiful things were also still happening." This tension between existential fear born from the constant uncertainties of life, and an affirmative, cathartic urge to seize the moment, is central to My Other People, a record that heals by providing space for recognition, a ground zero in which you're welcome to stay awhile but which ultimately only leads up and out. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound.